Kiefers Refuse To Believe Missing Son Is Dead

September 12, 1985|The Morning Call

How can John and Barbara Kiefer of Allentown give up hope that their missing son, Mark, 21, is secretly being held in a Cuban prison and did not drown in a violent storm south of Florida 2 1/2 years ago, as some people believe.

That's precisely their dilemma. As the parents of three other grown children whotogether form a tightly knit family, the Kiefers still cling to the possibility that Mark, a 1981 graduate of Allen High School, may have survived the swamping of a 44-foot fishing boat on Feb. 26, 1983, in the Strait of Florida between Key West and Cuba.

After several previous dead-ends, their hope was further dashed in early August when Rep. Don Ritter, R-15th District, received word from Cuban President Fidel Castro that Kiefer, Sea Lure Capt. Greg Stimpson and fellow crewman John Wells were not in Cuban custody.

Ritter had personally spoken to Castro about Mark Kiefer, an outstanding Allen High football player, when the legislator visited Havana on a congressional fact-finding mission in July led by Rep. George E. Brown Jr., D- Calif. While he thanked Ritter for verbally relaying Castro's official reply, John Kiefer, a Navy veteran, yearned to have a copy of a written response from Castro to Ritter. But Castro did not answer Ritter in formal letter.

The closest thing to the wish for a written response came yesterday when John Kachmar, a Ritter aide, told Kiefer that a copy of a letter was in the mail. Although addressed to Ritter, this letter was from an official of the Cuban Interests Section of the Czechoslovakian embassay in Washington, D.C. A duplicate of the letter, obtained by The Morning Call yesterday, read:

"This is in reference to your discussion with President Fidel Castro in early June concerning your desire to determine the possibility that Mark Kiefer might have arrived in Cuba.

"The President (meaning Castro) has instructed me to inform you that the results of the investigation that he ordered at your (Ritter's) request have been negative, i.e., that Cuban authorities have found that they do not have any record, or knowledge, pertaining to Kiefer's whereabouts."

The letter is signed by Rene J. Marjica, chief of section.

After listening to a reading of the letter over the phone, John Kiefer said he cannot help but compare himself to the father of an American serviceman listed as an MIA (Missing in Action). Without identifiable remains to bury, Kiefer is constantly haunted by the chance that his son is helplessly imprisoned and the family is making no progress toward finding and freeing him.

Kiefer makes it clear that he does not trust the Cuban government in general and Castro in particular.

"To be truthful about it, things just don't smell right," said Kiefer, who believes that the Cubans abducted the crew of the Sea Lure, which never sank and was found partially submerged off the island coast.

"Sometime ago, I read how a Cuban gunboat came out, shot at an American boat, rammed it and nailed the crew. This was an illegal, serious attack on an American vessel. How long has this kind of thing been going on?" Kiefer wondered.

Kiefer said he definitely feels that the U.S. Government, especially the State Department, is withholding some facts about his son's case from the family. "The Coast Guard report is not the whole story," Kiefer insisted.

Observing that "people have been trying to get me to believe fairy tales," Kiefer said he will try to obtain a visa to visit Cuba, confer with officials and seek permission to meet with any Americans being held in Cuban prisons.

While declining to disclose the details, Kiefer told The Call, "An effort has been started to force the (U.S.) government to release all the facts on the Mark Kiefer case through the Freedom of Information Act." But he conceded that even a successful attempt can take months to obtain such information.